*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

JUSSI BJÖRLING - OPERA ARIAS

Gerhard Oppitz is a deeply serious artist who also possesses a virtuoso technique, and in this he resembles Peter Donohoe, having also been born in the same year, 1953. I have liked him in Brahms, and this Liszt recital may also win him admirers—I see that he also recorded the two piano concertos and Hungarian Fantasia with Roberto Abbado and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (reviewed in June). Here, he makes a choice of solo piano music that usefully mixes bigger and smaller pieces. The Variations, with which he begins, are the longest work, and show us the composer in intense baroque mood as he develops his ideas upon a ground bass from Bach's cantata of that name. The pianist takes an equally broad view and allows the music to unfold with appropriate grandeur: indeed, this is a big performance in every sense...

-- Christopher Headington, Gramophone [9/1992]

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

A very appealing Bach collection played in a variety of transcriptions with complete mastery by Andrew Lawrence-King. Players of the modern harp may look with trepidation on anything with 'chromatic' in its title and velocity on the agenda, imagining a need for a third foot - and for all three to be hyperactive.

But the baroque double harp which Lawrence-King uses here has no pedals; there are separate strings for every note, but their selection calls for skill and speed, talents he has in abundance. Nor does he lack any other of the attributes needed to approach such a demanding programme. His view of the Chromatic Fantasia is contemplative rather than dramatized, occupying 1032" (par for the keyboard course is six or seven minutes) and in his annotation he rightly refers to the harp-like textures in which it abounds. Given its success it is a pity he severed it from its companion Fugue but doubtless he had his own good (perhaps technical) reasons. Technical reasons may also account for the changes of key for BWV997 (C minor to D minor) and BWV1004 (D minor to A minor), which should disturb no one.

-- Gramophone [12/1999]

Track Listing
1. Nursery Rhyme (as used in the film I'm Not Scared)
2. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 1. Rumba Toward the Hole
3. I'm Not Scared, film score: Penitence
4. I'm Not Scared, film score: The Glasses
5. I'm Not Scared, film score: A Cave Filled with Gold
6. I'm Not Scared, film score: End of the Games
7. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 2. On Thoughts
8. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 2. Curiosity
9. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 3. On the Tree
10. I'm Not Scared, film score: There Were Two Brothers
11. I'm Not Scared, film score: The Hole
12. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 4. On Fear
13. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 5. On the Hole
14. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 6. Gypsy Requiem
15. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 7. Duet
16. I'm Not Scared, film score: We'll Cut Off Two Ears
17. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 8. Against Fathers
18. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 9. I'm Not Scared
19. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 10. To Fly
20. I'm Not Scared, film score: Michele, You Need to Leave
21. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 11. Not to Forget
22. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 12. On Thunder
23. I'm Not Scared, film score: The Helicopters
24. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 13. On Solitude
25. I'm Not Scared, film score: Dance 14. Worried
26. Work(s): Concerto No. 143 in B major for violin & strings "In due cori": Andante

Original score composed by Ezio Bosso.

Personnel: Giacomo Agazzini (violin).

Liner Note Author: Ezio Bosso.

Recording information: Sintonia Studio, Madrid, Spain.

Photographer: Philippe Antonello.

Arranger: Ezio Bosso.

Gabriele Salvatores' I'm Not Scared, an unusual thriller set in a small Italian town in 1979, has an equally unique score composed and conducted by Ezio Bosso and performed by the Turin String Quartet. The score's unofficial title, "14 Danze per Bambini Intorno a un Buco" (14 Dances for Children Around a Hole), clues the listener in to Bosso's approach and how his music relates to the film, which tells the story of a boy who discovers how the adults in his town -- including his parents -- are keeping another little boy captive in a hole underneath an abandoned house on the outskirts of town. Bosso's score consists of 14 "dances" -- full-fledged pieces for the quartet -- and short connecting pieces that tie the dances together. The dances, such as "Rumba Towards the Hole," "On Thoughts," and "On Fear," capture the beauty and power of string quartet music at its finest; Bosso's melodies are economical but potent, especially in the darker dances like "On the Hole" and "On Thunder." The sense of space and tension created by pieces like "On the Tree" and "Duet" is palpable despite, or more likely because of, the deceptive simplicity of Bosso's style. The score's smaller pieces are only slightly less developed, and in the case of tracks like "Michele, You Need to Leave," "The Hole," and "There Were Two Brothers," they rival the dances' impact. Not only is the score's intensity and simplicity remarkable in its own right and a perfect complement to the film's story and visuals, I'm Not Scared is one of those rare pieces of film music that, just by listening to the score, makes you want to see the film for which it was written. ~ Heather Phares

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***